Continuous and pulse
feedings of urea as a nitrogen source in fed-batch cultivation of Spirulina
platensis
L.D. Sánchez-Luna, A. Converti, G.C. Tonini, S.
Sato, J.C.M. de Carvalho-2004
Aquacultural Engineering, 31(3-4): 237-245
Abstract:
Spirulina platensis
was autotrophically cultivated by fed-batch addition of urea as a nitrogen
source. Continuous and pulse feeding regimes of this nitrogen source (time
intervals of 24 h) were compared using a constant mass flow rate. Both
series of experiments were carried out at three different temperatures (25,
28 and 31 °C) and total times of urea addition (12, 15 and 18 days),
according to a 22 simple factorial design, and the effects of
these variables on the nitrogen-to-cell conversion factor and cell
productivity were verified by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The
intermittent addition of urea yielded results similar to those obtained by
the continuous feeding, therefore, the former operation mode would be
preferable to reduce the production costs of this cyanobacterium in
large-scale facilities.